It was decided last minute that I would go alone for this leg of our trip. As a result, Tyler and the kids have been separated from me for more than TWO WEEKS. I miss them terribly. I will be home soon.

Here's a copy of one evening's letter I wrote to Tyler.

Dear Husband,

'Twas fun texting tonight. Here is What Went Down on This Day.

After I hung up with you this morning, I was like, um what should I do now?

I decided to go running. I didn't want this superhot, muscular body of mine to turn to dough. So, I put my stuff on and headed for the beach. I just finished this futuruistic book about this young gal who thinks she's all docile but then society makes her realize that inside she's like a machine who can do all this crazy awesome stuff. So, I was like inspired, or whatever.

Off in the far distance on the coastline I could see that surf competition thingy my taxi driver told me about. I estimated it was 5- 8 miles away. I was like, huh, I wonder if I can run there? I brought money, because I've always had this desire to just run and run as far as I could, without having to worry about being able to run all the way back. I thought, hey, I'll just run as far as I possibly can. Then I'll turn back and take a taxi home. Neat!

So, I ran. It was incredibly windy out there on the coast. I didn't wear a pony tail. So when I ran, my hair flowed behind me like a horsey mane. I might have whinnied and neighed once or twice, earning me strange looks from passersby. I ran and I ran and I ran. It wasn't hard at all. I was right by the waves running. Like a horse! I whinnied again.

I got to the far-away-looking-surf-competition without even breaking a sweat, so I thought, ok, prooooobably not 5-8 miles away. I checked it all out for a while. It turned out not to be a surf competition, but an I-have-no-clue-what-the-heck-it-was competition. These athletes were running into the water and disappearing. Then a boat apparently found them and brought them back. I was confused.

At that point, apparently inspired by the athletes rock hard bods, I was like, I AM A MACHINE. I CAN RUN AS FAR AS I WANT.

But, I decided to run back to the hotel anyway and no press on further. I ran the whole way back, but now, remember the wind? Yes. Now my hair was blowing the exact wrong way. Backwards. So I was like a backwards looking horsey. "einnihW!"

When I got back to the hotel I looked up how far I had run. 6.5K. Without even being tired! I AM A MACHINE!

This was great ews but it also kind of made me mad. What kind of prissy, spoiled "runner" am I? My conditions must be met before I can grace the universe with a run. I either must have a beautiful trail ahead of me, or a wonderful beach with cushiony sand and the option for a taxi to pick me up at my tired point. Brat.

After my run, I was like, YEAH! I CAN DO ANYTHING! So I thought, I think I will go surfing. And so I did. I went to the htoel and changed, then rented a board. The dudes were like, Have fun, dude! And I walked off. It was then, when I was carrying this 9 foot long surfboard, that I remembered how windy it was outside. The board acted as a sail and when the next gust of wind came, I was carried off to another land and never seen or heard from again.

OR, I was just knocked over. It was embarrassing, so to make myself look like this sort of thing happens all the time, I whinnied and neighed a few times.

Right as my toes hit the water, THATS when the hurricane came. Torrential rains, tornado like winds, black skies. How sweet of them to accompany me on my little surf sesh! Unbelieveably, I was able to catch twelve, yes 12 waves before I quit. Because, it's not that fun to surf when pelting rain is pecking out your eyes. It was very dramatic out there... one minute I was fighting gale force winds and rough waves to get out to sea, thinking, "I AM WOMAN HEAR ME RAOR!" (raor spelled intentionally) and then the next I was depressed because my eyes were pecked out by rain and I missed a wave. But, overall, I think Kelly Slater would have been pretty impressed with both my physique and my surfing "skils".

When I returned the surfboard after a mere 30 minutes of rental, the people asked me why so short? I pointed to the hurricaney weather outside. It was obvious, wasn't it? They looked like I was crazy. "It'll pass, mate!" they said, and I was like, uh, this hurricane is here to stay, jerks.

So I went to the hostel to call the clients coming that afternon, who were due there in 2 hours. I was gonna be like, um, don't come, because it's raining hard! But then as I picked up the phone, I glanced outside. Sun shiny day, puffy white clouds in the sky. No proof of Hellstorm 2012.

Weird?

Love you.

Wendy

Having trouble uploading real images, so here are the last Costa Rica pix from our trip. These are from our phones.